Many of us here at Tiki Central are poor. I mean, relatively poor, we do own computers so we're not on the verge of starving.

Some of us are poor, AND live in areas where affordable Tikis and Tiki Decor are hard to come by.

So now and then we are forced to get creative.

Case in point, I called my home Tiki Lounge, "The Granite Tiki Lounge" Which posed two problems for me right off the bat. Where will I find a granite tiki? And how will I afford it, even if I found it?!?!

The answers were found at The Christmas Tree Shop, IParty, and Home Depot.

The first picture is a Tiki I bought at the Christmas Tree Shop (I don't remember the price but it was cheap) spray painted with a faux granite spray paint.

The second, is a broken Moai from a set of lawn spike lights given the same treatment.

I know I've seen at least one other instance of people here at Tiki Central bettering their store bought Tikis in this fashion, and I hope more examples of this type of Tiki-On-A-Budget will be posted here.

I've got a few more things I've done which I'll post in the days ahead.

However, there are no sources of anything new other than the aforementioned chain stores and anything that Accoutrements might put out.

Aren´t there are lots of great carvers, mug designers/makers and other Tiki artists offering lots of new Tiki items here at Tiki Central? I see really great, new (original and one-of-a-kind) Tiki works of art presented at Tiki Central all the time. You want new, original and top quality Tiki art, carvings and decorations - Tiki Central has artists making it!

There are great folks here making great new stuff. But for the most part it costs a lot. And when you live close to the makers, you can find deals. When you don't live close to the makers, you can't access those deals.

Plus, shipping is a bitch on the larger things.

And in terms of finding stuff, since there always was more tiki on the west coast, it's easier to find at estate sales/thrift shops/flea markets there than it is here.

The only good thing here is that there are fewer people looking for it.

One of these days GROG have to move out of the stone age and get a digital camera so GROG can post some examples of what GROG has done to make cheap, but nice looking tiki decorations, and the relatively easy process for doing such.

Yes, Toontoonz, there are many affordable pieces of art available here at Tiki Central, and I am the proud owner of Doug Horne's "Tiki Girl" print.

But this is a thread to exchange ideas about how to turn something that may be "un-tiki" (or any degree between cool tiki, and uncool tiki) on it's own into something creative and tiki without spending a lot of money.

This thread is certainly not meant to take away from the great carvers and artists here at Tiki Central, it's to help some of us decorate well, in the meantime, while saving our pennies to buy something BIG in the future!

When I realized my outdoor bar desperately needed a working sink, I grabbed a bathroom vanity sink that was sitting in my garage when I bought the house, grabbed some thick lumber that was also left over when the previous owner built a fence, dug a deep trench for the garden hose, bought an adaptor to hook the garden hose to the sink fixtures, built a sturdy frame from the lumber, and finally, made a quick stencil of a design I found on one of my shirts, and spray painted the parts of the sink and frame that wouldn't be covered by grass skirting.

(Here are some bigger pics that I'll just put a link to so as not to stretch out the thread)

This thread rocks. I love tweaking exsisting stuff and trying to make it tiki. This is a light I made. I used a cheap patio light as a mold for the cement. I will post pictures of a bar I built later and some modifications to a Target bamboo fountain I got on sale.